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I have a server that is being repurposed into a SQL Server. It came with more physical memory than the 32GB that can be seen by my OS (Windows Server 2008 R2).

Management would like me to configure the Maximum server memory used by SQL (SQL Server 2008 R2 Service Pack 3) to be higher than what is seen by the OS. I can change it in the properties of SQL Server via SQL Server Management Studio. Will SQL Server be able to utilize the additional RAM? Or will it exhaust all memory made available to the OS?

Hannah Vernon
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sudosysadmin
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1 Answers1

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Presumably you have the "Standard" edition of Windows Server 2008 R2.

You'll need to move to the Enterprise Edition (or DataCenter) of Window Server 2008 R2 to utilize more than 32GB, regardless of the "max server memory" setting in SQL Server.

Windows memory limitations can be seen on MSDN here.

Keep in mind, SQL Server also has memory limitations by edition. SQL Server 2008 R2 Standard Edition limits memory to a maximum of 64GB.

Hannah Vernon
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    Right. OS problem, nothing to do with SQL Server. If you want the OS to use more than 32GB, you need to switch to an edition of Windows that is capable of using more than 32GB. Even then, you don't want to give it all to SQL Server, and in fact you might not be able to depending on version/edition. – Aaron Bertrand Jan 10 '17 at 20:27
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    Max, thank you for your explanation and links. This was exactly my thinking on this but I was coming up short with a good source to explain to management. I appreciate all the quick answers! You guys are awesome! – sudosysadmin Jan 10 '17 at 20:52